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Any ideas for displays?

Hi,
I'm an NQT starting in Year 5 in September and have been in to see my classroom. It's quite big with lots of room for displays and although I don't have to fill them all at the start of term I would like to at least have a couple done early on so my classroom looks nice!
Does anyone have any good ideas for displays? My first topics are the Victorians (in history) and Keeping Healthy (in science) so maybe something around them? I was also thinking about doing a MFL display as it's my specialism. I was going to put up lots of bright postcards and fans from Spain (they study Spanish) and get the children to do some sort of work to put up? What do you think?
If anyone has seen any good displays I'd love to hear about them! Maybe we could get a collection of different displays for people to use in their classroom!
Thanks!

Have you considered a 'Fabulous Year 5' display. individual potraits of each class member that you can cut and group into an overlapped crowd (think Sgt Pepper but faces only)You'll get to see your pupils artistic ability and it's a fun and immediate, bright introduction to their new classroom. You could be brave & have one of your class paint you! Belair publications have display books that have good ideas for creative & interactive displays. Any MFL bi-lingual labels around the classroom would be a bonus.
Good luck

I am also an NQT starting in September with Year 5. French is my specialism so there will definitely be a lot of French in my classroom! Am planning to label things in French like pencil and pen pots so that the children have exposure to the vocab everyday.
I am also going to do a VCOP display which I can use during literacy lessons. Still not sure what my topic is for Autumn term, but will also have a topic display too.
At the beginning of the year I am hoping to do something like a 'Fabulous Year 5' display, incorporating children's work.

Thank you! I've decided to ask them to write their own postcard over the summer/the first day back about what they did over the summer and then stick them up on the display! I'll be going to Spain in the holidays and will write my own postcard about my time there!

I'm setting up a website to share ideas. I was wondering if anyone had any super duper displays that they've taken photos of that would like to contribute. Alternatively, any feedback on my work so far would be appreciated too!
Gems81

Similar to jomacleods display - I created a stage on my display board and used photos of the children as fans in the crowd/audience. I drew and laminated our different funny bodies with missing heads and the children took it in turns each week to choose a body to stand on the stage and add thier head - we used it as our star of the week board and they still love it a full year later!

Hi Keep Smiling,
I love the postcard idea, it's a very easy bright way to create a display that the children will feel ownership of.
Try www.**********.co.uk for banners for Keeping Healthy and Victorians - I'm sure I have seen both banners on their website, they're free and really bright and colourful - I've used their Science, Maths and Literacy ones. They also have a Gallery section where people have put pics of their best displays.
Also have a look at http://www.s194939745.websitehome.co.uk/ - they have a section of free resources, with vocab, targets,flashcards etc. which can be really useful for adding educational value to displays.
For Keeping Healthy you could have pictures showing people doing excercise and perhaps a big graph showing pulse rate, stop watch etc. You could have some pictures of the heart and lungs drawn by the children.
I'm an NQT in Yr5 just going into my second term at my
school. I'm in the process of re-doing all my displays ready for
September. I'm trying to create working walls, which reflect the work that's going on in the classroom, these are some of my ideas...

A display for each subject (as far as possible).

Each display has the current targets displayed for the class on laminated target boards, showing which chn have hit/are working towards the current target (got these from sparkle box too, laminated so I can change targets as needed)

In Science I have put key vocab on shelves on the windows, to be moved down to a lower shelf when children use the word (will also give out housepoints for this)

I am adding lots of bits of informationon the board relating to the topic but also leaving about half the space blank to put up the children's work - I think all displays should have children's work on it, they love it too.

In Maths I have a space for Mathematician of the Week which can be changed weekly.

On our Form Notices board I will have big squares of coloured paper with the House Names on, and then photos of the children, labelled with their names in each house. I'm hoping this will help with learning names too.

I have already spent hours preparing displays, and I know have hours more work to do before they are done, but when they are I will happily supply pics! Good luck with your displays!

Hi,
Just finished the year with Victorian topic. Used a large display board, backed it in black and bordered it with lace.
To start the topic we looked at the royal family. I filed the board with Victorias family tree showing the children she had and who they married. As we completed work the tree came down and work on Peel, School and famous victorian inventors went up.
Hope this helps

Have just finished my NQT year in year 5, and will advise you to laminate all the resources you can, and keep together - I've a large A3 folder to keep the bits in. A fantastic teacher gave me loads of advice that she puts on every board: vocab, with the tricky words having an explanation of meaning, pics of 'real life', some kids' work, some questions. Try not to use pre-printed banners, but cut out the letters - it really does look better. And back everything... For Keeping Healthy, I cut out a big picture of uneven scales, and the children put pictures/words of things to put on (eg lots of veg on lower scales, lighter on sweets, etc). I hope the person who did the postcard thing gets a decent amount of replies - I got 3 back last year (and I'd already put the stamp on!). And don't forget, your walls have to be useful to the children...use ********** for smaller areas - I've a connectives board, and have backed the wall behind my whiteboard, which has words for said, adjectives, adverbs, etc, with blank laminated cards so that when the children come up with an extra word, we add to the list.
Lastly...stand at the furthest point of the room - & (other than the children's writing) if you can't see what is written, remove it and enlarge it! Lots of the lovely A4 ********** stuff is useless when on display as it's just too small.

Hi,
I've been teaching for quite a few years now and every year, one of my first lessons is about Happiness. I usually start by asking the children to write a list poem about it starting each line with 'Happiness is...' They can do it in rough to start and then write it out in 'best'.
Then in the first art lesson, I show class abstract pictures by artists like Kandinsky who use bright colours and discuss colours which make them happy. I make sure that no black or brown paint is used and then ask children to paint pictures of Happiness. Then I back the poems and paintings on black paper which really sets the bright pictures off and mount the whole lot on a brightly coloured display board.
There are no right or wrong answers in either the Literacy or art activities, there is differentiation by outcome so even the lower ability children are able to produce something, the display is bright and colourful making a great impact, it is timeless- so even if it stays up for longer than you intended, it doesn't matter and what's more important is that every child feels valued as they can see some of their work go up on display almost immediately.
I've done this with children in both Key Stage 1 and 2 and it really is effective. Give it a go!
Good luck!

Keep Smiling- why don't you actually send them a postcard from Spain? Then you can use it to look at the language and layout of a postcard to assist them in writing their own. I did this last year. Photocopy a postcard template from the ********** website onto A3 paper and they can write and design a picture onto it. It makes a great display. Call it 'Dear Miss_______'.
You could also split the children into pairs and let them interview each other- favourite food, TV, who they live with etc. They could fill thier partners details in on a sheet that you have prepared, add a digital photograph of theri partner and you have a lovely display. Call it 'We are Year 5'. A good way for you to get to know the children and for them to work with somebody they do not know so well, also a good speaking and listening exercise.